Showing posts with label vegan products. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegan products. Show all posts

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Vegan products


I'm not a vegan myself (I'm a vegetarian, and I don't eat a lot of dairy, but still very far from being a vegan), but here's some info for you vegans out there regarding beauty products.

I realise that many vegans try to avoid animal ingredients not only in their food, but also in their lifestyle, and when it comes to beauty products, this means staying away from ingredients like beeswax, honey, propolis, lanolin, carmine, goat's milk, non-vegetable source stearic acid, and emu oil. As a vegetarian, I won't use any beauty products that have been tested on animals, and I avoid carmine, because it comes from crushed beetles, but I'm ok with ingredients like honey. But many vegans will want to avoid any ingredients that come from an animal.

Good news! There's plenty of options out there. A'kin, Sukin, and Natural Instinct products are all free from animal ingredients, and, like all brands I endorse on this blog, do not test on animals. Some of Trilogy and Evolu's products are vegan, but I think all of Living Nature's products contain honey. A lot of Lush's products are vegan.
Vegan makeup can be a bit trickier to find, but mineral powder makeup generally tends to be free from animal ingredients. I've posted info about mineral makeup here and here.
Living Nature's awesome eyeliners are free from any animal ingredients, using vegetable waxes instead of beeswax.
The only natural vegan lipsticks and lipglosses available in New Zealand that I've come across so far are made by Immersion Cosmetics. The lipsticks come in eight shades, and are $39.38 each. The lipglosses (called Lip Glazes) come in seven shades and are $37.13 each. They can be bought online at http://www.immersioncosmetics.co.nz/, and the website also has a list of stores which stocks them. They have quite a range of makeup, all vegan, except for their Lip and Eye Pencils, and their Lip Gloss Pots. Their mascara and concealer and the only natural vegan ones available in NZ that I know of.
As a cheaper alternative for a lip colour, you could mix mineral blusher, eyeshadow or bronzer with a vegan lip balm (like A'kin Sweet Blossom and Jojoba Pure Essential Lip Balm) to make your own lip tint. I haven't tried this myself, so I'm not sure how well it would work.
So yeah, quite a lot of options for vegans - to find appropriate products it's often simply a matter of reading ingredient lists - which, as a vegan, you'll be used to doing anyway.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Lip balms


I have extremely dry lips. From about the age of nine I would get a crack in the middle of my bottom lip every winter. So it's essential that I have a really good moisturising lip balm on me at all times. I've tried a lot of natural lip balms, but my favourite is Weleda Everon Lip Salve, $11 from Commonsense Organics, Hardy's, Health 2000, Homestead Health and some pharmacies. It's amazing for healing and preventing dry, cracked lips.

I also like Living Nature Lip Balm ($15), and Miessense Jaffa Lip Balm ($11.95), which tastes really yummy. Miessense products can be bought at Conmmonsense Organics, Hardy's and Homestead Health. I haven't seen the lip balm in any of these stores lately though, so if you'd like to try it, you can order it from the Miessense web site: https://www.mionegroup.com/home.
If you don't mind spending a bit more money, you could try Dr Hauschka Lip Care Stick, $19.00. I have used this before, but I prefer the Weleda one, because it works just as well, and is a lot more affordable. Dr Hauschka also makes a lip balm in a pot, $23. Dr Hauschka products are sold at Hardy's, Health 2000, Homestead Health, Nature Unplugged, Commonsense Organics and Farmers.

If you're wanting a vegan lip balm, you could try A'kin Sweet Blossom and Jojoba Pure Essential Lip Balm, $9.50. I didn't find this moisturising enough, but as I said, my lips are extremely dry. For someone with lips that aren't as dry as mine, this would probably work fine.
Some other options:
$10 and under: Viola Organics Lip Balm $6 (available in Unscented, Calendula and Mint Fresh), Apicare Revive Me Beeswax Lip Balm $6.90, The Herb Farm Lip Balm $9.00 (available in Vanilla & Orange, and Calendula & Lavender)
$20 and under: Evolu Healing Lip Treatment Balm $16, Trilogy Intensive Lip Treatment $17